


light pollution

by Darkfromday



Series: Arc-V Rare Pair Week 2018 [6]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V
Genre: F/M, a fic from ME? about ZARC? ...it's only slightly more likely than you think, actually no; this one's REALLY gross, poor Mieru, saving my fics from the tumblr monster, this one's kind of gross, warning for weird ooze and mirrors breaking, why Mieru didn't become a Lancer: the fanfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-05
Updated: 2018-12-05
Packaged: 2019-09-12 08:55:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16869922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Darkfromday/pseuds/Darkfromday
Summary: Mieru can totally become a Lancer. She has everything she needs to be the group's ace in the hole: a unique summoning method, a significant ability for supernatural foresight, a healthy helping of appreciation for Sakaki Yuuya and his Pendulum summoning, an unsettling dark shadow with malicious vibes that trails her every move--Wait.What?





	light pollution

**Author's Note:**

> prompt day 06: "stars"
> 
> This is a bit more non-con and squicky than I intended when I was writing it, so I'd understand if people skip out on this mini tale.

There is a shadow trailing Mieru’s every move.

Ever since that day, the one where she had to hold her Darling down while he’d screamed and spewed demonic miasma, she has been aware of a  _presence_  at her back, invisible, but something coldly angry and sinister that makes others stay away from her. She is of course a believer in fates and things beyond mortal ken, but  _nothing_  Mieru has ever heard of could stalk someone, cloud parts of their Future Sight, or make them physically unable to see the stars at night.

 _This_  thing can do all that.

Mieru doesn’t scare easily, but she does get… sidetracked. Her mysterious hovering menace forces her to keep her distance from Yuuya, because somehow she  _feels_  that it would be happy to hurt someone she cares for so much.

That means that for days after  _that one leg_  of the Junior Youth she has no one to talk to about the growing darkness around her and her steadily-more-morbid predictions of everyone’s destinies. And as the tournament progresses without her and the invading strangers wreck Maiami, that shadow seems to grow stronger, actually gain form and substance enough to linger on her bedroom walls and flicker in front of any windows she passes.

She dreams of people disappearing, and wakes to find it is her new reality thanks to the city’s new foe.  _Academia_.

Akaba Reiji gives the nameless their name and calls for the best and brightest of Maiami to step forward and bravely defend everyone from the coming darkness.

Mieru watches the speech from her bedroom and thinks:  _I will become a Lancer_.

It is the first clear thought she has had in a while. Determination floods her–-who cares if she has cold shivers down her spine every so often due to her uninvited guest, or that she still doesn’t have full access to her prophetic visions, or hasn't had any more successful tarot readings? She can still duel, and duel well. A Lancer just needs to duel for her life and topple a bunch of child soldiers not much older than herself. That will be no problem.

She thinks.

 _Except_.

It becomes a problem that very night.

 

It’s nearly midnight. LDS’ light pollution chokes the constellations, not that Mieru could appreciate them right now anyway. The moon is a golden sliver in the sky as she packs a duffel bag full of tarot cards, Duel Monsters cards, and a couple changes of clothes.

Her shadow seems to be swallowed by the natural shadows of nighttime, so her plan is thus: sneak out of her room, out of her house, and make her way to LDS to join the Lancers. She can sneak into the building and sleep over until she’s accepted into the ranks.

Packing goes fine; keeping the house quiet for her sleeping parents works fine too. Things start  _not_  going fine the moment Mieru’s gaze snags on her full-length mirror. The darkness trailing her these days occasionally becomes a formless blob at her shoulder when she’s brushing her hair or changing clothes in front of it in the mornings, but this time, this day, the shape it materializes into looks very, very  _human_.

Her eyes get huge.

“ _Don’t scream_ ,” the thing whispers from the other side of the glass.

Mieru doesn’t scream. She yanks an old charm meant to ward off evil from off the dresser and points it at the space next to her reflection.

“Begone!”

A mouth forms on the shadow man, seemingly just so it can  _laugh_.

“ _Is that an appendage from an animal? Oh_ dear _. Someone get_ help _.”_

“What  _are_  you?” Mieru demands.

“ _I’m your most important person_ ,” it purrs. “ _Or your worst nightmare_ …”

 _You’re_ not _Yuuya–-!_  she thinks, backing away even as this man-shaped thing expands and grins devilishly in the glass. She has to think it firmly, because the disgusting, sludgy aura of the not-man  _does_  feel eerily like her Darling most recently felt–-though she can’t fathom  _why_.

“Y-You’re not important to me at all,” she finally stammers. “And once I get some stronger magic, I’ll get rid of you so you’ll never shadow me again–-”

“ _Wrong, little sweet_.”

The nightlight in her room is suddenly snuffed out.

_Wha–-?!_

“ _It’s thanks to_ your _skills that I was able to wake from within my host! Your self-styled “darling”. Now that I’m aware again, I can take my time finding every piece of my soul through my host, until I’m complete once more_.”

It’s not cold, but Mieru finds she’s shaking.  _Host… soul pieces… complete?_

“Darkness like you shouldn’t be completed–-shouldn’t be whole. It only leads to pain.”

Suddenly the thick dark shadow  _writhes_ ; Mieru tastes rage in its aura.

“ _You think you can stop me, Houchun Mieru? With your fortune cards and your weak monster spirits? Those Fusion-summoning children are_ nothing _compared to **my** wrath, **my** talent. I’m _letting _them tear your world and every other world apart, because it will bring all of me together that much faster. Then I can destroy it all–-every single world._ ”

It’s trying to scare her, lending images of fire and destruction and Yuuya’s face in different clothes over and over again. She doesn’t bend, because he–- _this_ –-has become less scary with every hissed threat and clarified motivation.

“I  _will_  stop you,” she says. “Once I’m a Lancer, my Ritual cards will be even stronger than before, especially once they start making Pendulum upgrades. Whatever you are–-you won’t stand a chance against me and my friends.”

 _BANG_.

Her shadow slams its hands on the other side of the mirror. Mieru sees a crack form and pales, backing up. Her first concession; her first mistake.

“ _You asked what I am. What I am is far more powerful than you, your peers or your teachers could possibly foresee. I am destruction in purest form, the strongest Duelist ever born, and since_ you _woke me from my tormented sleep, you can call me Zarc._ ”

_BANG._

_**Crack**._

“ _You don’t scare me, Houchun Mieru. Your visions of the darkness to come are correct, and ego-boosting, but your mistake was in not sharing those visions before you woke their subject. Now–-well. Ritual Summon is a powerful force, and you are too strong with it already to be left alone to push it farther_.”

_BANG._

_**Crack**._

Mieru glances wildly toward her packed-away deck.

“ _I hoped you’d join me_ ,” Zarc muses. Its–- _His_  features emerge from the thick darkness: silver spiky hair, eyes as gold and slitted as the moon outside,  _Yuuya’s_  handsome face. “ _I’m unstoppable even without you, but it would have been nice to leave something intact. Ah, well. You will not be joining the Lancers, you will not get the chance to teach them about Ritual Pendulum, and you will not be there to try and put me back to sleep inside my host_.”

The mirror shatters with Zarc’s next blow.

Mieru releases a choked scream and lunges for her bag, her  _cards_ , but oh, she’s too slow. Inky blackness from inside the mirror swarms around the room, cutting off her avenues of escape, swallowing her bag, nearly swallowing  _her_. Zarc walks through the reaching, screeching shadows towards her placidly, like some apathetic, wicked god.

She fights back–-bites at the disgusting shadows and twists and hollers for help that doesn’t come. It all just seems to amuse him, this evil twin, this  _thing_  bending to be eye-to-eye with her.

“Let me  _go!”_

“ _Now, now. I’ve just explained why I_ can’t _do that yet._ ”

“ _Yet_?!” Mieru half-shrieks.

Zarc laughs. One of his hands comes up and grabs her chin in a bruising hold, just barely caressing her cheek with the pads of his icky fingers.

“ _Oh, Mieru. So feisty, so charming. It’s why I won’t be killing you–-you are just far too_ special _. No–-instead, I’ll just make sure all these silly little sweet thoughts of you running off to save the day take a hike_. _Then_ _, when I've destroyed everything,_ _I'll be back for you._ ”

“ _NO!_  YOU CAN’T! I–-”

The darkness closes in; Zarc smiles.

“ _Sweet dreams, Mieru-chan_.”

And he kisses her passionately. As she vacillates between horror and fear in her helpless mind, frozen in his grip, wisps of his dark powers slide down her throat and throw a film over her eyes and tiny body, whispering to her in cloying tones. It doesn’t take long before she starts to feel very sleepy, and she’s collapsing in his arms soon after that, lost to his plan.

 

An annoying bird is chirping right at her window, which her tarot reading did  _not_  have the courtesy to tell her about last night. Mieru groans as she rolls out of bed, fumbles to shut the window and gives herself a once-over in the–-

 _Hmm_.

Was something different about her mirror this morning?

She studies it for a solid minute before noticing a minuscule crack near the top of the tall glass. Nothing to fuss over-–the house did shift sometimes in the night. Accidents happened.

All right then.  _Agenda, agenda… agenda for today…_

“OH!”

Mieru smacks her forehead.

“Today’s the day the Lancers get picked and we can see them off! I have to wish Darling good luck~!”

From then on she’s in a hurry. She bathes and dresses at rocket speed, grabs her book bag and only pauses to kiss her photo of Yuuya goodbye before she dashes out the door. Fast, fast, so very fast.

Far too fast to notice until too late that she’s missing a bag, that her lost deck won’t turn up for another few days, and that she had tasted ash and envy in the innocent, consensual press of her lips against that prized picture.


End file.
